[Jim/GA]

Original style pop-out switches look cool but are a reliability nightmare.

When they are pushed in (off) they are designed to ground the points. So it is possible for them to fail and keep the points grounded. This makes a hotwire not work. The switch needs to be disconnected from the distributor to get rid of this ground on the points.

Put a small piece of paper or business card between the points to keep them disconnected from the ground and then see if the wire-side of the points have full voltage. If you don't see full 6 volts like this, the points are still grounded. If they are, it's the switch OR THE WIRE INSIDE THE DISTRIBUTOR FROM LOWER PLATE TO UPPER PLATE IS SHORTED OUT. This happens more often than people realize.

The first step is to insert the little scrap of paper and read the voltage.